


Playing With Your Food

by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 02:39:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8472349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticReactions/pseuds/BossToaster
Summary: Shiro did not sign up for this grocery shopping trip.





	

**Author's Note:**

> For Glitter-Lisp

Usually, this was Hunk’s job. Shiro was, simply put, a disaster in the kitchen. Which was impressive, given how he’d spent a good portion of his childhood.

Shiro had eaten a lot of things out of a box or microwave in his lifetime, basically.

And because of that, he was really not great at the whole ‘figuring out what alien foods were edible/tasty’ thing. Hunk was utterly astounding, and Shiro had literally no idea how he did it. He just had complete faith in Hunk’s ability to take weird, colorful things and turn them into food. In a pinch, Lance usually was second choice because he had, in his own words, functioning taste buds.

Shiro wasn’t actually sure how he ended up in third place. He assumed it was because Pidge genuinely couldn’t care less and would just agree that anything they found seemed fine, whatever, probably not poison, could she go now? And Keith... Well, Keith somehow managed to be worse than Shiro.

So now he was trailing after Coran, bag held tightly to his chest as he looked around at the colorful stalls of the alien planet. Normally, these shopping trips were a source of entertainment and fascination. Shiro was fond of getting to meet alien cultures, provided they weren’t trying to kill and/or subjugate anyone. Now, it had become a source of stress, because Shiro had literally no frame of reference for how anything was supposed to be, and what if they picked up something deadly?

Coran here would hopefully help with that. Maybe. It was kind of dubious.

Oh god, Shiro was going to kill them all. Why the hell was he the adult, again?

“Oh, look!” Coran said, seemly oblivious to Shiro’s slowly increasing fear. “They have _danaris_!” He hustled over and picked up one of the highlighter blue orbs. It looked hard and glossy, like a marble, and Shiro had no idea how one would even begin to cook it.

Stepping around another shopper, Shiro stood next to Coran and gave a slow nod. “Okay. Good.”

Coran eyed him, somewhere between amused and bland, like one might look at a teenager pretending to be cool.

It wasn’t a comforting expression.

“Here, smell,” Coran ordered, shoving the orb under Shiro’s nose. “Your species’ hearing is underdeveloped, but your nose should be up to the task.”

Shiro stared at him, then sighed. “You know, when you guys say that, I really wonder about how you were supposed to be a diplomatic kingdom.” He paused, frowning. “That and when you both woke up.”

One brow up, Coran stared him down. “Develop your ears better and we won’t have this conversation, will we?”

“I’ll get on that.” Shiro kept staring for a few more minutes until Coran cracked, grinning and waggling the orb. “Okay, fine.” He leaned down and took a deep breath, then froze. “Oh. It smells like...” It smelled like cake mix right out of the box, before anything was added to it. Sweet and floury. “It smells good, actually.”

Coran’s chest puffed out. “Of course it does. And it’s very good for you, you know.” He paid for one from the bored looking stall attendant, then pulled out a knife and sliced off part. It rolled apart like a ball of ice cream, and then Coran handed the slice to Shiro to taste.

It was so sour that Shiro’s entire face puckered. “Woah, holy-” He swallowed hard, then found himself sucking on his tongue to soothe the sparking sensation. “That’s good for you?”

Judging by the way Coran’s lips were twisted and how bright his eyes were, he’d known exactly how Shiro would react. “Oh, yes. I’ve gone over your nutritional requirements with Hunk, and a _danari_ has seven out of the nine acids your species requires.” His lips thinned. “Though I am still not sure why your bodies require certain acids. I thought acids were bad for you.”

“I’m going to assume you mean amino acids,” Shiro replied carefully, and hoped he hadn’t just swallowed something that would destroy his stomach from a misunderstanding. “Hunk’s been doing well by us, so I’ll defer to him on that.”

Coran shrugged. “Alright. Then yes, these are very good for you.”

“Then we’ll get some, then,” Shiro replied. Going by nutritional value was the easiest method. And if they didn’t like it, then next time Hunk shouldn’t get involved with a project and Lance shouldn’t be involved on working with the blue lion. So there.

Beaming, Coran nodded. “Excellent. One more should be fine for now.” He snagged another and paid for it as well, then handed it over to Shiro to pack into his bag. “Now let’s see what else we have.” 

Some things Shiro could actually recognize from dinner, so he was able to pick those out himself. Others, Coran informed them that Hunk had used, and that worked well too.

For others, Coran just got excited.

“Is this okay to eat raw?” Shiro asked, holding up the slice of meat. It was a pale purple. It kind of looked like fish, and that was okay to eat raw with caution, but he had no idea if that applied to alien meat too.

Coran nodded. “I don’t see why not.” He watched eagerly, ears perked high. Shiro tried not to look at them. He still wasn’t sure what was and wasn’t rude with that. One of these days he’d ask.

Or he’d get Pidge to ask. Pidge never got embarrassed about questions, and they could always play it off as a side effect of being the green paladin.

With a last wary look, Shiro bit into the meat.

It tasted like the powdery cheese from instant mac and cheese boxes.

And Shiro loved it.

“Heavy in vitamins and minerals, especially calcium. Good for keeping you nice and sturdy.” Coran nodded, beaming at Shiro’s wide-eyed look of awe.

Frankly, Shiro was already sold. “Does this go bad quickly?”

Coran stared at him blankly. “Go bad?”

“As in... rots. Must be consumed within a certain time period.” Shiro rolled his hands as he tried to figure out a better phrasing, since Coran was still looking at him like a primitive lifeform. “Expires past being edible.”

Slowly shaking his head, Coran frowned. “We won’t just leave it on the counter. We’ll put it in the containment chambers.”

“Oh.” Shiro had no idea what that was, actually. Maybe that little box thing in the back. “And that just- okay. That’s taken care of.”

Still staring, Coran frowned. “What happens when food ‘goes bad’?”

Well, now Shiro wished he’d kept his mouth shut. “You have to throw it away or it can make you sick. It’s usually easy to tell. The smell changes. Or it looks bad. But there are plenty of things that don’t go bad, even if you leave it alone for a long time. I was just checking. We can’t really afford anything to go to waste.”

“And you go hungry?” Coran asked, ears drooping. He reached out and squeezed Shiro’s shoulder.

Oh boy. “No. I mean, sometimes, for some people, depending. But usually if something goes bad you just eat something else instead. There’s variety.” 

Shiro’s answer didn’t seem to have soothed any of Coran’s horror. Instead, he paid for a package of the purple meat, then used the hand on Shiro’s shoulder to half-march him down toward more of the stalls. “Let’s try some more items,” Coran said gruffly, patting where he’d gripped.

The next hour was a blur, where Coran stopped focusing on filling their supplies (though they did buy several things) and instead made try Shiro at least a little bit of everything that was edible raw.

By the end of it, Shiro felt like he’d tried one of just about every kind of fruit and veggie available for trade on the planet, and they’d brought back a sizable collection of samples for everyone else. But Coran seemed to be satisfied, at least somewhat. “Do you want to get more of the _eynarvan_ before we go?” He asked. At Shiro’s blank look, he added, “The purple meat.”

“Oh. We got a good amount of that already, I think. I want to make sure we get enough different things that we don’t get sick of anything before next trip.” Like how thoroughly sick of the food goo they’d gotten. But that was best not said aloud.

Coran nodded, though he gave Shiro another one of those odd searching glances. Then he patted him on the head. “Alright, let’s head back.” He started down the road, heading toward where they’d landed the castle, leaving Shiro to follow after.

Shiro felt oddly like he’d gone from ‘fellow soldier’ to something else, but hell if he knew what.

***

Several hours later, there as a knock on the door to Shiro’s room. 

Putting down his pad, Shiro walked over and opened it. Hunk stood there, looking like he’d been slapped. “Afternoon. Do you need something?”

“Shiro,” Hunk said slowly. “All due respect. Honest. But _what the fuck_?”

Oh. “We tried to pick out anything you had used before, but there wasn’t a lot. After that, I just went based on nutritional value.”

Hunk continued to stare. “Shiro, the _goo_ is nutritious.”

All Shiro could do was shrug.

“Next time I’m caught up in a project? Remind me of this.”

“Can do,” Shiro replied, amused. “Did you try the purple meat?”

Hunk nodded and shuddered. “Ugh. I tasted like...” He caught Shiro’s careful expression and froze. “Oh. You... You liked it?”

Shiro only shrugged again, because he knew very well his tastes sucked.

“Okay. Okay I can work with that.” Hunk still looked vaguely green, but he nodded. “Just... let me next time, okay?” He shook his head, then seemed to pause and consider Shiro. “Yeah, I can work with it.” This time he sounded much less disgusted, but with a hint of something pitying. Apparently he’d written Shiro off as having no taste buds and beyond help.

Eh, fair enough. But they were fed and no one was going to go without anything they needed for nutrients, so mission accomplished, as far as Shiro was concerned. Everything else was secondary.

Or, rather, the rest was why they had a team. It worked out in the end.


End file.
